Boat Race

Clanker

Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me why there were soldiers (and please don't jump on me if they were marines!) at the presentation of the trophy after the boat race? Not that they shouldn't be there, just curious as to why.

Old-Salt

Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me why there were soldiers (and please don't jump on me if they were marines!) at the presentation of the trophy after the boat race? Not that they shouldn't be there, just curious as to why.

No idea - presumably one more thing that ITV couldn't be arrsed to cover properly. Why is it that they assume that the general public are too stupid to see adult coverage of an event like this? I couldn't be less interested in the Oxford 5-man's art project, but some context to the race might have kept me on side, even if it is a minor clash between two provincial universities. Maybe - crazy idea I know, and far too much like the BBC version - we could have had some of the Isis/Goldie race, a few clips of some of the pre-race matches (Molesey and the US VIII for instance). Perhaps even a report on the Henley races (OK, assisted drifting and all that, but still better than two idiots in a pair demonstrating badly 'how we row off the start').

Old-Salt

They had their RIBs on the water chasing, so I suppose they were there in some official or safety function (if only to ensure that the flotilla produced enough wash to guarantee wet feet for the crowd). It beats scantily clad women to hand over the trophy, anyway.